Spookymilk Play With The Prose — Challenge #10: Defining Moment In Life

Before jumping into challenge #10, thought I’d mention that I won another of the Twins’ radio trivia questions during Friday night’s game by emailing in the correct answer. Considering that I first mailed in the wrong answer, and then took quite a while to send in the right one, I was surprised to have won this one.Q: In which year did the Twins send the most players to the All-Star game, and who were they?
I first answered 1987, knowing the Twins sent a slew then (5), but discovering that they’d sent five at least one other time, I considered going back farther in time, when there were fewer teams. Bingo!
A: 1965 – Grant, Battey, Killebrew, Versalles, Hall, Oliva

Now that the medal streak is over, it’s time to get back up on that horse! Play with the Prose challenge #10: write about a person at the end of his/her life reflecting on their defining moment. Oh yeah?!

“Truth or dare!” said Horace from his wheelchair.

Stan looked up from his tray of food and replied, “Er, truth?”

“What was your biggest contribution in life?” Horace asked, an impish smile on his wrinkled visage.

“Hmmm…I wrote the lyrics to ‘In the Air Tonight’.”

Horace gaped for a couple seconds, and then burst in a spasm of chuckling. “Sorry, friend, I’m calling horse droppings on that!”

“No, really, I just wrote the chorus.”

“What, ‘I can feel it comin’ in the air tonight, oh lord’ repeated several dozen times?!”

Stan could no longer keep a grin from splitting his gray-trimmed face. He drank in Horace’s laughter and the scene in the assisted living cafeteria where they sat. In a moment of introspection, Stan uttered, “Life is a journey, not a destination.”

Horace put down his fork and wiped a laugh-tear from his eye. “You’re getting very zen on me, old man. Did I touch a nerve?”

Standing up and taking a moment to straighten his creaky knees, Stan looked down at Horace and winked. “If you can stage a good diversion, I think I can procure us each another slice of apple pie!”

The judges’ comments:K: Okay, the entire idea of this story is hilarious. It’s the saddest, most pathetic “biggest contribution to society” that someone could possibly manage, and yet Stan is perfectly content with the life he’s lived and he’s going to die happy. This joke didn’t ruin itself by getting too broad, and it easily could have. Tons of fun. SILVER

P: I like these old guys. They’re well written characters that feel rounded and real. It doesn’t even matter if Stan actually wrote the words to the song. The switch to the impending apple pie caper suggests that there’s a bit of life left to these two. I’m glad to hear it. GOLD

This one came to me on Saturday while Mo and I sat eating at Jimmy Johns. I could tell the 5-6 workers were getting into “In the Air Tonight” playing overhead (it surprised me, as I thought they were too young to know that song well), and had to chuckle when they got into the drum break near the end.

Did I side-step the challenge with this one? Probably. Still, I don’t feel that a life necessarily has a defining moment — it IS a defining moment. And it gave me a way to show an interchange with a couple oldsters that consciously decide to leave the grumpiness to others. Hopefully that’s me some day far in the future.